WYDM 07

Now it wasn’t her concern anymore. Declaring she wanted a divorce, leaving a letter for him and turning away to pack her bags alone… it was all for that reason.

Having left like that, Sehera had abandoned all the privileges that came with being a duchess, so she’d left behind everything she’d had.

What she brought with her was just a few gold coins Leri had prepared for her?

Just then, whoooosh—a fierce wind howled from outside. The wind that passed once was threatening, but it didn’t sound twice more.

When the wind picked up or the weather was bad, she seemed to worry about him even more. She wondered why he came back so badly injured…

Usually, rather than just falling and getting hurt somewhere, she was very concerned thinking he seemed to get hurt fighting. That’s how her feelings got hurt now, but still, parts that made her worry kept arising.

Recently, it seemed there were no major injuries at least… Please, may it stay only that much from now on, or rather, may he stay healthy without getting hurt at all…

What had she been doing all this time… Somehow she felt like a fool who knew how to do nothing.

If she lived well, he wouldn’t worry either. If she lived too poorly, even the cold-hearted Ethan couldn’t help but be concerned.

Sehera went up to the second floor with a feeling like a sense of mission had arisen. Finding a room while carrying her luggage, she dumped her bags in her truly empty room with nothing in it.

From here, she was truly alone now.

She really didn’t know what to do first, but conversely, because of that, it became a situation where she could do too many things.

From now on, she planned to think carefully and start one by one. First, it seemed she should clean.

It had been so long since she looked forward to tomorrow. In the Planer estate that she’d thought would be daunting, surprisingly, anticipation for tomorrow was waiting for her.

Though it was a place where all her loved ones had left, if she managed well, couldn’t she fill it again with people she loved?

With that expectation… looking out the window, fortunately the sunlight was shining very warmly into the room.

* * *

Light began entering the room that had been full of cold blue.

The deep darkness where nothing could be seen, seemingly endless, had passed, and the morning sun that seemed like it wouldn’t come was beginning to rise.

In a place that wasn’t even his room, the man standing blankly without even leaning anywhere, let alone sitting down, didn’t move at all, frozen solid, even though the sunlight was entering and starting to melt him from his feet.

His head, unable to grasp what to do, had hardened, and his whole body had hardened along with it. He’d lost where this was, what he’d come in for.

Because… this room had lost its owner.

And in the meantime, outside had turned upside down.

Because of another room that had lost its owner.

“Your Grace… aren’t you here?”

“This is strange… Not only his clothes but even his sword is still here. He’s never gone out without his sword.”

“Isn’t he just taking a walk?”

“I hope so, but… usually he sleeps until this time. You know. He comes back soaked in exhaustion.”

Head maid Leri grabbed head butler Chase and kept making anxious sounds.

Was it because she faced a room without him too, when Sehera was already gone? Was she strange for making such a fuss when she wasn’t even dealing with a child?

But Leri, who seemed to step back following Chase’s calm words, went around searching all the places Ethan might go.

Not just the basics like the study, office, and reception room, but the walking path in the back yard, the walking path in the front yard, even the dining room and bathroom—there was nowhere she hadn’t been.

Their master wasn’t someone with a wide range of activity. Especially recently, he often returned with major injuries or in an extremely exhausted state, so he only went between his room, the large bathroom, and the dining room.

Even then, when his injuries were severe, meals were brought up to his room, so at those times he was someone with an even narrower range than Sehera.

“He’s not here…”

When she’d circled the building’s exterior once, the sun was already high in the sky.

Thinking maybe they’d crossed paths while he was walking outside and he’d gone back in, she was hurrying toward the front gate.

“Oh my!”

“…Leri?”

The one who collided with the impatient Leri coming out from inside was head butler Chase. He caught Leri, who looked like she’d fall backward, with one hand and furrowed his brow sharply.

Because he knew too clearly from circumstantial evidence why the head maid he’d parted with a few hours ago was rushing in from outside with such a flushed face.

Leri grabbed Chase’s hand that was holding her, straightened her tilting body, then bowed to him pretending nothing was wrong and tried to quickly enter inside.

It seemed Chase still wouldn’t believe her. Thinking she shouldn’t ask him for help again, she tried to push past him and go inside, when Chase suddenly grabbed her hand firmly.

“Huh, wh-what?”

“Are you still searching?”

It seemed he knew she’d been poking around the entire estate.

“H-how did you know?”

“When you’re walking around with your face that pale, how could I not know? …He’s not anywhere, is he?”

“…Yes. I looked everywhere—his room, bathroom, study, office, reception room, of course, and everywhere else. But… but he’s not there.”

At Leri’s words, Chase nodded. He couldn’t just watch her search for someone so much that her hair, which had been neat just two hours ago, became disheveled.

“We should check the places we’ve already seen once more. Let’s go.”

She’d only hoped he was inside, but even checking the rooms one by one again, she couldn’t hear any sign of him at all.

From then on, the estate turned upside down. Clearly his clothes, shoes, sword and such were all in their places. The only thing that had disappeared was Ethan himself, who’d fallen asleep after changing into indoor clothes.

“W-we’ll start searching slowly from the estate entrance!”

A disappearance inside the estate—if he couldn’t be found anywhere, that would be an even bigger problem. All the employees were mobilized to search for Ethan.

Though the time had come to announce lunch, having not yet seen Ethan since the morning sun rose and she’d gone in to wake him, Leri was burning with anxiety.

It was the moment when her blind faith that their master would surely return no matter what was shattered.

Not knowing where he’d gone or when he’d return, just waiting indefinitely without promise.

Those were clearly words Duchess Sehera had said. Even with confidence he’d return, it must have been hard, yet knowing it wasn’t coming back to her, how could she have waited silently through that long time?

Leri suddenly felt empathy for the former duchess’s heart and felt like crying.

“Wait, surely not…”

Standing in the first-floor hall unable to go anywhere, Leri suddenly had a strange thought. From the beginning, Leri’s search range had been places Ethan might go.

His room, study, office, reception room… or the bathroom. Barely expanding to the walking paths. And now she’d just started searching small rooms one by one.

In that situation, there was one space she’d too naturally left out.

Leri’s head lifted. Her gaze looking upward wasn’t toward the right where the Duke’s room on the second floor was, but toward the left where the Duchess’s room had been.

After staring in that direction for a while, she began climbing the stairs like she was possessed.

And without delay, she turned left instead of right. Surely not, surely not… even though there was no way he’d be there, the feeling of “surely not” wouldn’t disappear.

Leri carefully placed her hand on the doorknob and opened the door, hearing the very loud click of the doorknob moving.

Even among the employees, it was a place no one had asked if anyone checked. Since they were people who knew how Ethan had treated his wife, it was natural they didn’t think of her at all.

So he shouldn’t be here.

The carefully opening door made no sound at all. And looking inside the smoothly opened door, Leri’s mouth fell open.

He shouldn’t have been there… but she’d finally found the person she’d been searching for for hours. In that very space she’d thought he absolutely wouldn’t be.

Their master they’d been searching for for hours, Ethan, was in Sehera’s room—the room she’d left a few days ago after leaving behind a single divorce document to return to her family home.

He stood in the middle of Sehera’s room, stopped while staring somewhere. It seemed like time had stopped only around him.

Only then did Leri remember there were words she had to convey yesterday. Naturally, she should have conveyed them as quickly as possible, but her heart was breaking so much she couldn’t bring them out.

She couldn’t bring herself to speak to him when he showed no interest in what she had to say.

Leri stepped into the room and quietly closed the door behind her.

He mustn’t be discovered yet. Before that… before people crowded in asking why he was here, checking one by one whether he was okay when his body must hurt, mixed among many people, there was something she had to say.

The time to talk alone like this in this estate wouldn’t be long. In a way, it was an opportunity for Leri too.

“…Who is it?”

She approached Ethan, who made a sound, perhaps hearing the door sound from behind. Leri took one more step behind him, then knelt on the floor.

At that presence, Ethan’s gaze, which had been looking only at somewhere far away, creaked back toward her.

Two eyes filled with puzzlement fell on her.

“Yesterday I tried to tell you… but there’s something I couldn’t convey because I couldn’t bring myself to say it, Your Grace.”

At Leri’s firm tone, not only his gaze but his focus turned toward her. His soul, which had been wandering somewhere far away, seemed to have planted its feet on the ground.

Like his lack of answer became an answer, Leri bit her lips hard, then opened her mouth.

“Duchess Sehera… left documents requesting divorce from Your Grace, and the day before yesterday, a few days ago, she left the Croft Ducal Estate and departed for the Planer estate.”

Divorce, Planer, departed.